75 years later, Japanese man recalls bitter internment in US

When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, first thing Hidekazu Tamura, a Japanese American living in California, thought was, “I’ll be killed at hands of my fellow Americans.” It wouldn't be last time he felt that way.

At 99, amid commemorations of Wednesday's 75th anniversary of formal Sept. 2, 1945, surrender ceremony that ended World War II, Tamura has vivid memories of his time locked up with thousands of or Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps. Torn between two warring nationalities, experience led him to refuse a loyalty pledge to United States, reunce his American citizenship and return to Japan.

“I have too many stories to tell,” he chuckles in an interview with Associated Press.

Born in Los Angeles to Japanese farmers, his parents earned eugh money to return to Japan in just a few years, buying a farm near Osaka.

Against his family’s wishes, Tamura moved back to United States alone in 1938 when he was 17, after his dream of becoming an aircraft pilot was crushed when he failed an eye exam. United States, he hoped, would provide him with same opportunities his parents received.

But Tamura arrived in California amid rising discrimination against Asians and Japanese in particular. His uncle, who ran a grocery store, once drove him to a fancy hilltop restaurant in San Francisco and showed him a sign outside that re, “Orientals t Allowed.”

“You won’t ever go in re until you die,” his uncle told him. “That’s sort of country this is, (it) discriminates against Japanese.”

“I saw that and thought, ‘Bloody hell!’ And that awakened me as a Japanese," he said.

When war began, Tamura was finishing his college studies in aircraft engineering. But in February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order that led to incarceration of an estimated 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry, including those, like Tamura, with U.S. citizenship.

following year, government asked those in camps wher y would serve in combat for U.S. military, and wher y would swear unqualified allegiance to United States, reuncing loyalty to Japanese emperor.

questions divided Japanese community between those seen as loyal to United States and those loyal to Japan. split caused fights and even killings in camps.

Many men answered “yes” to both questions, enlisting to fight in U.S. military abro even as ir families were stripped of ir property and locked in camps.

Tamura said he answered “” to both questions. He was sent to Tule Lake, a segregation center for those deemed disloyal, where he joined a group called “Hokoku Seinen Dan,” which means, “Young Men’s Association to Serve Farland.”

group was initially meant to educate and prepare U.S.-born, second-generation Japanese Americans, many of whom h never been to Japan, for an uncertain future, including possible deportation, according to Sachiko Takita-Ishii, professor of Sociology at Yokohama City University. As war rd, some members began to feel betrayed by United States and took to demonstrations, professor said.

For a time, Tamura said he served as spokesman for group, whose activities were eventually seen as subversive by U.S. government.

Hundreds of its members would march around outer perimeter of camps at dawn, with white hebands and shaved hes, a symbol of devotion to Japan.

As y marched, Tamura could see U.S. military guards aiming ir machine guns at m. “y were itching to shoot at us,” he said.

At a meeting with U.S. officials, Tamura said he was told that American guards h just returned from war and “hated Japanese,” and that safety of group members couldn't be guaranteed if y continued to march.

Looking back, Tamura mits marches were dangerous, but patriotism h inspired young members of group, which Tamura said numbered around 500 during time he was re.

“It’s war with Japan, so we thought we’d be killed eventually anyway,” he said, by way of explanation of his risky activities in camps. Secretly, Tamura hoped Japanese military would rescue him from camps.

U.S. ministrators at time called group “subversive” and “traitors.”

Barbara Takei, a board member of Tule Lake Committee, a n-profit group dedicated to preserving history of camp, and an independent researcher and activist, said in an email that such groups "were demonized by white ministrators as disloyal, even subversive, helping to validate lie of military necessity (that) justified wartime incarceration."

“If that incarceration h been a little more humane, re probably wouldn’t have been a large number of protests,” said Hiroshi Shimizu, president of Tule Lake Committee, but re were few or outlets for dissenters.

While at Tule Lake, Tamura and a group of ors were branded as troublemakers and transferred to higher security Santa Fe Internment Camp. It was his fourth and last camp.

Government records show that Tamura was at Tule Lake starting Oct. 8, 1943, and was sent to Santa Fe Internment Camp on Dec. 27, 1944. Records provided by Tule Lake Committee show Tamura was a member of Hokoku Seinen Dan’s leership.

At Santa Fe, he heard Japanese emperor’s mid-August surrender brocast while listening to a handme rio. But Tamura wasn’t convinced war was over and thought dress was propaganda.

He still didn't believe war h ended when he was released from Santa Fe and boarded a ship in Seattle in vember 1945 for two-week trip back to Japan.

On his 25th birthday, in December 1945, he arrived at Japanese port of Uraga and asked a woman cooking over a clay stove on street, “Did Japan win?”

woman angrily gestured at surrounding area, which was still ashes and rubble. “Of course we lost. Look around you,” she said.

Tamura w marvels at his youthful blind belief that Japan would win.

Despite turmoil of internment, he w remembers with bittersweet stalgia camarerie and friendships he me during those days.

Even though he resisted in camps, he said he has always liked Americans. re's “ feeling (of being an) enemy or anything like that,” he said.

Seventy-five years after returning to Japan, Tamura still follows U.S. news, including incidents of racial injustice and upcoming presidential election.

“Almost 70, 80 years since I knew America n, same thing, discrimination, (is happening) w” against mirities, he said. It “never improves, this problem.”